Welfare v. Media

Background

The provided document is a letter from NBCUniversal Media, LLC's counsel to Judge Valerie E. Caproni. The letter states that the Trustees of the Welfare, Pension and Annuity Funds of Local No. One, I.A.T.S.E. brought the action to recover allegedly delinquent employee-benefit plan contributions identified by the Funds' auditor for 2013 through 2016.

NBCUniversal's letter says the auditor's calculations had not been verified or resolved when the lawsuit was filed. It also says NBCUniversal had represented that it would pay any contributions owed with interest. The letter identifies a dispute over whether NBCUniversal could offset additional contributions against amounts it allegedly overpaid in 2015 and 2016.

Positions and remaining disputes

According to NBCUniversal, the parties engaged in informal discovery and provided information to the Funds' auditor. The parties then agreed on the amount of additional contributions owed, and NBCUniversal promptly paid those contributions with full interest. The letter says the Trustees later advised that additional interest had accumulated and that NBCUniversal was verifying that amount before paying any further interest owed.

The letter states that the remaining disputes concerned possible liquidated damages, attorney's fees, and other remedies under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g), as well as an offset or refund for alleged overpayments under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and federal common law. NBCUniversal asserted counterclaims seeking the return or offset of those alleged overpayments.

Requested action and court directive

NBCUniversal requested referral to mediation before a magistrate judge under Local Rule 83.9(e)(3). It also requested that the action be stayed until mediation was completed and that the discovery deadline be extended by two months.

The court's directive on the document states: "Plaintiff is directed to submit a letter to the Court by December 6, 2019 indicating whether it consents to a referral to the Court's mediation program." The provided text does not state that the court granted or denied NBCUniversal's mediation request, stay request, or discovery-extension request. It also does not decide the parties' underlying disputes over contributions, remedies, fees, or alleged overpayments.